Air Force plane crashes in Indonesia killing all onboard

Rappler.com

This is AI generated summarization, which may have errors. For context, always refer to the full article.

Air Force plane crashes in Indonesia killing all onboard
The plane crashed just 4 minutes before it's scheduled landing, marking yet another accident for the armed forces.

JAKARTA, Indonesia – A Hercules C-130 aircraft belonging to the Air Force crashed after hitting Mount Pugima in Kampung Minimo, Maima district, Jayawijaya, Papua, on Sunday morning, December 18. All 13 passengers onboard were killed.

Papua police spokesman Senior Commissioner Mustopa Ahmad Kamal said the plane crashed into the mountains.

“The plane has been found in District Maima. The team is already on site and is evacuating the crew,” Kamal told Rappler.

He added that the whole crew was confirmed dead. Aboard the aircraft were 3 pilots, 8 technicians, a navigator and a military officer, as well as food and cement.

“12 crew members and the pilot, according to preliminary reports, were all killed,” he said.

Rescuers located the plane debris soon after. All 13 bodies have been recovered according to the air force. 

In a press conference in Jakarta, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Air Force Marshal Hadiyan Sumintaatmadja sent condolences to the family of the Air Force members who died.

“First of all, we express our condolences over the death of the Air Force members who were all on duty. We pray for strength for the bereaved family to deal with this ordeal,” said Hadiyan.

“We apologize to all the people of Indonesia for this unexpectd tragedy. We pray for the souls of the soldiers accepted by Allah, the Almighty God,” he said.

Bad aviation record

According to Sumintaatmadja, the Hercules plane, with registration number A-1334, crashed in the vicinity of Wamena, Papua airport. He said the plane was being used for pilot training.

While the cause is yet unknown and the investigation is ongoing, Sumintaatmadja said initial reports say the crash was caused by bad weather. He added that the plane was well-maintained.

Indonesia has a patchy aviation safety record. Aircraft are commonly used for transport in remote and mountainous Papua and bad weather has caused several accidents in recent years.

The fatal incident is the latest for Indonesia’s accident-prone military.

In November an army helicopter accident killed 3 on Borneo, while another 3 died when a military chopper went into a home in Central Java in July.

Some 12 people were killed in March when another military helicopter went down in bad weather on Sulawesi in central Indonesia.

But the worst incident in recent times was in June 2015, when an air force Hercules C-130 plane crashed into a residential neighborhood in the city of Medan, killing 142 people and causing widespread destruction. 

Chronology

The chronology of events is below:

5:35 CET: The plane departed from Timika to Wamena at around and was scheduled to arrive at 06:13 CET. It never arrived, crashing 4 minutes before its expected landing. 

06:02 CET: The plane was in contact with the Wamena tower Wamena to land on the runway

06:08 CET: The tower reported it saw the plane in the air

06:09 CET: The plane lost contact with the tower

Below is a list of the crew:

Mayor Marlon A Kawer (Flight instructor)
Captain J Hotlan F Saragih (Airmen BR)
Lt. Hanggo Fitradhi (Aviators II)
Lt. Arif Fajar Prayogi (Navigator I)
Lt. Lukman Hakim (Interpreter air radio)
PELTU Suyata (Interpreter air machine I)
PELTU Khusen (Interpreter air machines II)
Sergeant Khudori (Interpreter air machines II)
PELTU Agung Tri W (Load Master I)
Pelda Supreme S (Load Master II)
Sergeant Fatoni (Load Master II)
Serda Suyanto (Extra crew)
Captain Rino (Passenger services from radar unit 242 in Biak) – with reports from Agence France-Presse/Rappler.com

Add a comment

Sort by

There are no comments yet. Add your comment to start the conversation.

Summarize this article with AI

How does this make you feel?

Loading
Download the Rappler App!